Jump to content

twowheelsgood

Members
  • Posts

    1,647
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    125

Everything posted by twowheelsgood

  1. Eight year term? Have the Council learnt nothing form being locked into these long term contracts (BBLP for instance)? It would seem not. Let's hope there's some sort of performance review after a year and penalty clauses for failure to deliver (or, rather, take away).
  2. Any property asset transferred away from this Council for community use is a very good thing. Friends of Castle Green have a fantastic track record.
  3. I understand that “The council awards a contract to S C Joseph Ltd for the Fire Precaution & Risk Assessment works at various Car Parks in Herefordshire following a successful tender. The council approve the expenditure of up to £526,113.50 on the works, which includes a 5% contingency of £23,914.25, and 5% internal and external professional fees of £23,914.25." “The approved funding to undertake this work, is not sufficient. Therefore, we are requesting a further £186,113.50, which will be taken out of the Fire Precaution & Improvement Works within the 23/25 programme.” Increase in cost of 35% to £712,227 before it evens starts ... what on earth?
  4. Possibly in the light of the recent fire at Luton Airport car park (and another a few days ago at Bristol Airport, too late for this inaccessible report). Electric vehicles and oversize/weight SUV's are certainly heightening the risk in concentrated spaces for fire or collapse in historic multi-storeys. That said Herefordshire Council only has Garrick House (I think). £0.5m seems typically over the top for this Council, but I'm sure consultants won't be saying we can do it for less (and Plough Lane seems only to act as a clearing house for jobs to consultants these days). Contrast this amount with the paltry sum they are spending on the homeless (ironically sited in a car park).
  5. 'Living'? No window, no water, no heating, chemical toilet - have we really sunk this low? Is this all we can offer fellow human beings? The most heinous of prisoners do a lot better than this. Shame on Herefordshire Council.
  6. Mmm, agreed, bigger is rarely better. Lots of meetings, little achieved. That said, if Powys could pop over the border and take over repairing what's left of our Highways, that really would be a win!
  7. Yes, it's a bit of mish mash at the moment, this certainly updates and smartens it.
  8. The speech is there on youtube. Ironic that Bridgen should be complaining on the platform formerly known as twitter, an autocratically censored site, where everyone is answerable to the owner.
  9. Part 3 of the ongoing 'you REALLY just can't make it up' saga of this debacle. The 9 week remedial works outlined above have now been going on for 28 weeks and appear to have been abandoned, with areas fenced off and left unfinished. Enquiries to both the ward councillor and the cabinet member have not been answered. Local residents have today received yet another letter from BBLP advising the whole length of the road will now be CLOSED for YET MORE overnight working from Monday 9th October for 5 nights. They appreciate our patience! Who knows, the works may even be completed before Christmas at this pace. I repeat, the original works were programmed at 16 weeks and it's now been over a year since they were started and still no end in sight. It's not even as though it's a good (or even safe) scheme! Why does no one in authority give a monkeys?
  10. We're seeing the consequences of a lack of investment in schools (and other public buildings) in the news at the moment. Pulling money away from them for questionable update of facilities which saw £1.92m spent on the building just 6 years ago seems, at best, foolish. It also warrants close questioning of those in Plough Lane commissioning such works (and indeed how they awarded the contracts).
  11. Really sorry and shocked to read about and see the extent of your injuries, purely as a result of being a good citizen and trying to do the right thing. That the police weren't interested is shocking, especially with all the recent publicity about the knife sculpture. Sadly, the country continues its seemingly unstoppable slow decline, with lawlessness at every level left unchecked. The tories are too busy filling the pockets of their mates to care, or even pretend to care, and labour, well, who knows. They can't be any worse, can they? The trouble is, with so much damage done over the last decade, it's going to take more than four years to start to turn things round.
  12. AECOM is the world’s trusted infrastructure consulting firm, partnering with clients to solve the world’s most complex challenges and build legacies for generations to come. AECOM is an American multinational infrastructure consulting firm. Should be good for lil' old Hereford then. It does beg the question as to what so many in Plough Lane actually do, when so much is passed to expensive outside facilitators. It should be one or the other surely? Does anyone have a grip on costs in Plough Lane? I suspect no one wants to rock the boat, it's all too cosy, and the 'interim' directors come and go so fast that they can never see anything through.
  13. Dear, oh dear. No surprise at the contractor either. It appears that £303k is being pulled from capital investments in schools to 'corporate asset review projects' These are; a) Blueschool House Proposal to reconfigure internal layout and update facilities b) Three Elms Proposal to reconfigure two units at Three Elms with regards to internal layout c) No 8 and Town Hall Proposal to reconfigure internal layout and update facilities Will councillors be asking where the £1m overspend disappeared to before voting on this?
  14. Yes, I'd have to agree about the photo, it's just an ego trip for her.
  15. I think we all know the answer to that one. Despite the tens of £millions poured into this service, why are they only able to say 'Practice is starting to improve'. Good grief.
  16. Nearly 3 weeks the cycle path has been closed off and high double screened fencing erected to hide the remedial works ... or perhaps not. I popped my camera above the screens to record, well, not a lot of work done really, but then, this is BBLP direct labour. What a debacle this whole thing has been.
  17. Part 2 of the ongoing 'you just can't make it up' saga of this debacle - following on from the March remedial works (which didn't seem to achieve much, save for making things worse, including leaving open trenches in the cyclepath), local St James residents have had another letter from BBLP, advising that they will 'be delivering the remaining remedial works required for the scheme'. Works will commence on Tuesday 6 June and will take approximately NINE WEEKS to complete (the original contract was 16 weeks) - that's some sort of remedial list. They claim it will be at 'no additional cost to Herefordshire Council or the taxpayer' but I cannot believe that. This was a complete failure on Harrington's watch - people with huge experience of cycling infra (certainly not BBLP) advised him it would fail but he would not listen and he paid the price. However, we are left with something that wasn't asked for, was changed from the agreed scheme with stakeholders and does not work, even when or if it's built properly. There have been numerous very close misses and several collisions at the Cantilupe Street junction, albeit that's down to poor driving, but it should have been designed out and should never have got through the safety audit. It's cost an obscene amount of our money and stands as a folly to those who put political aspirations before common sense.
  18. This was budgeted at £55k in the linked report, so more than twice over budget before it's even started ... how do Property Services get it so wrong? Was this an open tender, or is there only one local builder?
  19. Small things that make a huge difference to the usability of public transport - this can only be a good thing. More grass roots, common sense stuff is what the County needs.
  20. Indeed, he was an extremely good Ward Councillor who did a huge amount of work. He was elected to the City Council and will no doubt be supporting his District Council successor as best he can.
  21. No, I think you're right. I've also realised that Phillip Price is making a comeback (elected for Golden valley North) - talk about getting the old band back together - it's straight back to a decade ago!
  22. So who wants power enough to jump into bed with the conservatives to give them a majority? History says the Lib Dems - 6 out of the 12 elected would be enough. Will they stick together as one party or not or will some of the so-called 'independents' succumb?
  23. Crikey, I've just spotted the name Harry Bramer in the list of those elected - former (and some might say controversial) 'Portfolio Holder for Contracts and Assets' from around 2015, responsible for, amongst other things, the great farm sell-off. No doubt he will be looking to make his mark in the new administration.
×
×
  • Create New...